Manufacturers are under continual pressure to reduce costs associated with and/or enhance efficiency of manufacturing processes. In this regard, manufacturing a particular article (e.g., airplane) may require performing various steps to produce a complete example of the article. The type of steps undertaken in a manufacturing process may be dictated by the article itself and/or by other conditions pertinent to the manufacturing process (e.g., use of sub-contractors for producing components of the article). For example, manufacturing airplanes may require assembling components, such as fuselage sections, which may be made separately, sometimes by different sub-contractors and/or at different locations. Accordingly, the manufacturing process may comprise performing various measurement steps, such as to ensure that the different fuselage sections match during the assembly of airplanes. One type of measurement typically performed during assembly of airplanes is circumferential measurement, which is directed at obtaining measurements relating to the circumference of cylindrical or rounded shaped structures, such as fuselage sections. Current methods for performing circumferential measurement are typically based on radar metrology techniques, which tend to be time consuming and require use of expensive equipment.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a circumferential measurement apparatus and method that reduce data collection time and/or cost, while maintaining or even improving accuracy.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.